OneWebDay in Washington Square Park Today

New York techies and Web aficionados rallied in Washington Square Park today to celebrate … the Internet! Billed as an "Earth Day for the Internet," OneWebDay is being celebrated around the country (from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco), as communities hold events to learn about and advocate for online participation in democracy. In the Village, Sree Sreenivasan of Columbia’s journalism school and WNBC-TV moderated a discussion with Tim Westergren of Pandora, Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig, Craigslist’s Craig Newmark, Dharma Dailey of Ethos Group, City Councilwoman Hon. Gale A. Brewer, and others.

Susan Crawford, a professor of law specializing in Internet issues at the University of Michigan, "founded" OneWebDay in 1996. In a press release, she said: "Peoples’ lives now are as dependent on the Internet as they are on the basics like roads, energy supplies and running water. We can no longer take that for granted and we must advocate for the Internet politically, and support its vitality personally.”